Different Colored Threads
by jesi ki kage
Summary: Green for friends. Blue for family. Red for love with sex. Orange for love without. For Lexa, the threads reveal themselves with death. For Clarke, well, she hasn't got a clue what causes her to see the threads.


Different Colored Threads

Green for friends

Blue for family

Red for love with sex

Orange for codependent

Inspired by: /works/7714837/chapters/17581627

* * *

The colors came with death.

At first Lexa couldn't figure out what the strange threads were. She'd been about six, just starting her training as a Natblida, when the blue threads showed up. Lexa had only one, but as she watched it had slowly frayed and snapped.

A few days later a message from Trikru came.

Her last familiar tie was dead.

Of course, she hadn't fully figured out that blue meant family until she saw the blue thread between her friend Luna and Luna's twin brother Liam. The surprise as understanding hit her resulted in a physical hit and the loss of her spar. It took all of Lexa's will power not to glance down at her friend's wrist when Luna asked if she was okay.

The green threads came and went en mass.

She hadn't meant to be, but that night she'd been alone, and terrified, and drowning under the weight of her emotions - her feelings - her weakness, and she found herself staring at her wrists the moment the threads faded into view.

She was still staring when as one eight threads frayed.

She was still staring when all but one snapped.

Somehow that hurt more than anything else that had happened that day.

Somehow she drew strength from that single, worn, frayed, faded green thread that stretched off into the distance.

She blantantly ignored the blue thread that stretched toward Trikru and her mentor. Or at least she tried to. Until Anya turned up at Polis tower to congratulate her in public and hold her in private. It wouldn't be until Anya was leaving that Lexa realized the blue had deepened into a richer, more vibrant shade.

When the red threads came into view Lexa was terrified.

One was dark, the color of drying blood. The other was faint and thin, more pink than red as it stretched far above Lexa's head and disappeared into the ceiling.

Later she'd confirm that it went straight up into the sky.

Later she'd discover that it slowly rotated a full 360 degrees around her wrist as though the one to which it lead was in constant motion.

For now though her attention narrowed on to the thread the color of blood. The thread that was straining and vibrating as though someone was attempting to cut it. As though this unknown person was vibrating the thread just to make she saw it. Felt it. Knew what was to come.

Lexa visibility recoiled when the thread finally snapped.

For a moment she was frozen.

Then terror raced through her and she was shouting -

Shouting for Anya, for anyone who could get her answers -

Answers about where her lover, her light, her happiness, was -

Where Costia was that she had just been killed.

Her answer came soon enough, in a form that would forever haunt her.

Costia's head.

Delivered to her bed.

After that Lexa swore off forming relationships with anyone.

She ignored the straining that her blue thread underwent. She ignored the repair that occurred to her single green thread. Ignored the implications of new blue threads stretching from her natblida and her, from her chief guard and her.

She didn't want to acknowledge what they meant. Because acknowledging them meant it would hurt even more when she lost them.

Still.

She couldn't help but wonder about her one red thread. The one that moved like clockwork around her wrist. The one that pointed into the sky.

Into space.

It lead to possibilities no one had ever considered.

It lead to the unknown.

And the unknown could distory her Coalition if not handled carefully.

So while Lexa steadily ignore what the existence of that thread meant, she still made plans. Proposed ideas. Got her leaders and generals used to the idea that there might just be more out there. A 13th clan. Or maybe more than one clan floating out there in space.

She made plans for both options.

* * *

Clarke had found no rhyme or reason to when a new color thread would reveal itself.

She'd been still too young for regular school when the blue threads came into view. For a week afterwards all of her drawings had blue threads connecting her family and others together.

The small handful of adults she interacted with gave her weird looks, but it wasn't until she started school and her kindergarten teacher asked her quietly after class to not draw her 'additions' to her pictures that she realized something was wrong.

That not everyone could see the threads.

Of course she'd only been able to see the blue back then.

A game of chess with Wells was interrupted by Clarke's jaw dropping.

Stretching between them was a green thread.

After the initial shock wore off Clarke frantically looked around. Immediately she spotted the new threads intermixed with the blues she'd grown accustomed too.

For the first time she wonder just how many different color threads there could be.

She was brought back to focus by Wells asking if she was alright.

Gulping Clarke weighed her options. She'd never spoken about the threads since kindergarten. And she wasn't sure Wells remembered her drawings with the blue threads.

But Wells was her best friend.

The vibrant and thick green thread between them was proof.

Still.

She didn't tell him.

After that, every time she caught sight of their thread she'd wonder if silence had been the right answer.

Over the following years she'd watch as a blue thread twined it's way around their green until the two threads looked as if one. Until eventually only the blue remained.

Blue for a brother.

A brother she was hiding something from.

When the red threads first appeared Clarke was confused. She had no idea what these could mean.

Especially since hers pointed to... well, no where on the Ark.

She knew.

She checked.

She'd followed it as far as she could go.

No matter where she went on the Ark it just kept pointing - not down per say but...

To earth.

No matter where they were in orbit it always pointed to Earth.

And that could only mean one thing.

In her wanderings she learned what the red threads meant.

Love.

Strong love of an intimate type.

One that she'd never reach on Earth.

It wouldn't be until years later that Clarke realized just how much of the future she unwittingly changed that day.

It was two days after the red threads had faded into view.

Two days after she followed her own faint pink one as far as she could on the Ark.

One day after she was sitting in the dinning hall and watched a new thread form as two of her peers shared their first kiss in the corner.

One day after she stumbled upon a couple fighting in a hallway and saw their red thread snap.

The possibilities scared her.

She'd seen blues snap with death. Greens snap with betrayal. But she'd been horrified to learn that red could snap from words buried deep finally being released.

The knowledge became too much.

She told Wells everything.

She told him about the blue threads that bound families. How a family wasn't defined by blood and the threads were proof. She told him about the green threads of friendship. How greens could deepen into blue. And she told him about the red threads. How hers went on and on and on until it disappeared to Earth.

How she wasn't the only one with threads pointing to Earth.

He believed her. And supported her. And agreed that the possible implications of threads going to Earth were significant.

But he didn't know how to help her do anything about it.

Neither teenagers noticed the door to her parents bedroom was open. Neither noticed her exhausted father sitting at his desk with eyes wide. Neither noticed the hope that they had just planted. No one would understand what that meant until long after things had changed beyond recognition.

By then, they'd be on their way to Earth.


End file.
